iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I have not seen either of his previous films, but definitely would like to. I’m impressed.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I really enjoyed the movie Rose of Nevada last night: the saturated 16mm film stock and unsynchronized sound, the inexplicable time-travel narrative, the Cornwall setting. And I love that director Mark Jenkin shot, wrote, edited and did the sound design. I’ll be contemplating this movie for a while.

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Dr Laura Varnam @drlauravarnam.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Absolutely delighted that my copy of @brianlibby.bsky.social’s book has arrived! Looking forward to learning all about Portland, Oregon!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Oh wow, thank you SO much!!! How lovely!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

From the Spiral Elevator to the Delta Dome, my latest @orartswatch.org architecture column contemplates what might have been over the past 120 years, collected in the captivating "Unseen Portland Architecture" exhibit at Design Portland. www.orartswatch.org/unseen-portl...

orartswatch.org

‘Unseen Portland Architecture’: imagination and transformation • Oregon ArtsWatch

From 1905's Lewis & Clark Centennial Exhibition to contemporary designs, a parade of grand but unrealized architectural ideas that might have reshaped Portland.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Portland friends, come see me this Friday afternoon! From 12-4pm, I will be at the Weedman Design Partners gallery (1905 NW 23rd Place), signing books and generally hanging out. My exhibit of photos remains on view there through October.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Did you recognize any of the people who were filmed? I do enjoy how the film seems very of its time (the clothes and hairstyles) yet also timeless (feels like the Amsterdam I visited 20 years later).

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Holy cow! And he’s actually in two episodes!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This evening I’ve enjoyed watching “A Photographer Films Amsterdam,” a kind of verite documentary from 1982 filmed for Dutch TV, full of people-watching with some great faces — after reading about it in Jeff Young’s book Wild Twin (@wildtwin.bsky.social) youtu.be/f1a6W2ZA8v0?...

youtu.be

My AMSTERDAM by Ed van der Elsken (1982)

YouTube video by BITS & PIECES

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

A remarkable Jane Bown portrait: Bob Hope & Anita Ekberg gelatin silver print, 1962

The two sit uncomfortably underneath movie lights, waiting for the next shot.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sal Mineo's performance is one of my favorites among Columbo victims. He's not onscreen that long, yet he quietly brings substantial emotional depth to the character. Plus every time I watch this episode, set at an embassy, I get fixated on the otherwise alien phrase "the legation."

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My book received an incredible two-page spread in the print version of The Oregonian today. Pretty cool!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Oh cool! I hadn’t heard anyone talk about this film (I found it in Criterion Channel), and then it was so good I started to think there must be some fans out there…especially given the director.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Watching Satyajit Ray’s The Hero tonight I paused the film several times to photograph the screen. Great cinematography.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Returned to the Unseen Portland exhibit this morning for a second look at unrealized projects I’m writing about for my next architecture column.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Nice! Their sound was so unique — I guess that's why it has stuck with me.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

What a nice surprise! Morphine is still one of the nineties bands I listen to most. So thankful to have seen them play, back in NYC in ‘94. And this new song, made with the late Mark Sandman’s vocal tracks, sounds really good.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I love this 1903 design for what was known as the Spiral Elevator, designed Daniel E. Condon for Portland's Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition. At 180 feet, it would have been taller than any present-day local building. Alas, it went unbuilt. (As seen in the current exhibit "Unseen Portland.")

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thank you to the KBOO radio show Art Focus and host Joseph Gallivan for having me as a guest. We spent a half-hour walking through downtown Portland and talking about Mark Rothko, Mel Blanc, architects Michael Graves and Pietro Belluschi, and Pioneer Courthouse Square. kboo.fm/media/135637...

kboo.fm

Brian Libby

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 11.30 a.m., Joseph Gallivan interviews Portland writer Brian Libby as they walk around downtown Portland looking at the architecture. His new book, “In Search of Portland: Exp...

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A return visit with one of my favorite album purchases of recent years.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

An interview I did with Portland TV station KPTV about my new book... www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKxY...

youtube.com

'In Search of Portland' walking book tour

YouTube video by KPTV FOX 12 Oregon

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Do you think there may be a connection between his Dolphins association and the lack of a contract extension? If I were ESPN, I certainly would bristle at Aikman moving through the Pandora’s box opening that Brady unclasped.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Sometimes I still marvel that this beauty (a German shepherd coyote mix) was my childhood dog.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Awesome! Thanks so much for getting the book!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I don't normally like posting (or looking at) photos of myself, but Powell's Books just sent me this pic from Tuesday's reading and conversation, and it was such an extraordinary night — standing room only and a sellout of books — that I'm happy to share.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And what unites them besides Lincoln High School is the doubters: Rothko was voted most likely to become a pawn broker. Blanc was nearly expelled by the principal for continually making strange cackles in the hallway instead of attending class. The cackles became the voice of Woody Woodpecker.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Mel Blanc: one of the truly great Portlanders. I was just saying earlier today how much I love that Blanc and Mark Rothko attended the same high school here in the 1920s. I want to write a dual biography called, “Of Color Fields and Cartoon Voices.”

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

WHAT A NIGHT! We had standing room only at @powells.bsky.social and they ran out of copies with 20 people in line. I'm gobsmacked and grateful. Thank you so much to everyone for coming!

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Oregon State University Press @osupress.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Happy Publication Day to Brian Libby (@brianlibby.bsky.social)! "In Search of Portland: Exploring a Transforming City" is now available from your favorite booksellers and directly from OSU Press! beav.es/YJJ #PortlandOregon #PortlandArchitecture #PortlandHistory #PortlandWalkingTours #ReadLocal

Walking tour featured inside of In Search of Portland.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Appearing on the Hello Rose City TV show this morning. Thank you KGW and host Lacey Evans!

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Portland Mercury @portlandmercury.com · 15/09/2026

In Search of Portland, the new book by local journalist and architecture writer Brian Libby, reveals the stories behind the built landscape, the people, and the history that have created modern Portland.

portlandmercury.com

In Search of Portland Reveals an Evolving, Ever-Changing City - Portland Mercury

A new book leads readers through local history via walking tours of Portland's downtown.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You know it's a weird day when you do two different local TV news interviews in the morning and afternoon. Thank you KATU (that's channel 2 on your dial) and KOIN (channel 6)! Tomorrow I'm going for the hat trick (of ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates) with KGW.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Thanks so much to everyone who came to my gallery show opening yesterday! What a wonderful time. Huge thanks to Weedman Design Partners.

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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The Way We Laugh Now, a special section of New Yorker cartoons from November 12, 2001

Two cartoons: The first is a woman with a cat in a pet carrier at airport security and a guard is telling her, “We’ll have to declaw the cat.”

The other is a collection of thought bubbles from people walking down a street:

AFGHANISTAN IS THE SAME AS ALL THOSE OTHER "STAN" COUNTRIES. BUT IT'S GOT A WHOLE Different stump.

WASN'T THERE A MORTHERN ALLIANCE
IN THE FIRST STAR WARS MOVIE?

JALALABAD.
I REALLY ENJOY SAYING JALALABAD.

AL QAEDA IS SPELLED WITHOUT A U. What’s up with that?

ANTHRAX! AMTRAK AM EX! FED EX!
FEEDBACK! FONDUE! MY CIRCUITS ARE OVER LOADING!

KANDAHAR!
DIDN'T HE RUN IN THE BREEDERS' CUP?

Three cartoons: One of two people walking

into a restaurant. One is being checked for weapons and saying “The food is just so so, but the security is fantastic.”

Another: two men at a bar and one says, “I figure if I don’t have the third Martini, then the terrorists win.”

A couple watching TV and one says, “I liked the theme to the Gulf War better.”

Two cartoons: one of a line of people. One person Says to the other, “It’s hard, but slowly I'm getting back to hating everyone."

The other cartoon shows a rich couple in opulent surroundings being served by a butler. One says, “We should consider ourselves fortunate. At least we have food and shelter."

Three cartoons: one is of a couple. One says to the other: "You can't expect to get back to normal if you never were normal."

Another cartoon shows the FBI visiting a couple’s door and saying: We’re from the FBI, going from home to home making sure that everyone is scared shitless.

The last cartoon is of a long haired man walking barefoot on the sidewalk with a huge sign in his hands that says: EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Thank you so much! I really appreciate this!

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I love that I’m actually getting social media ads this week for the show I’m curating, using my own photo. It’s pretty trippy seeing a shot you took in an Instagram ad.

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